Arts & Culture

So Much for that David Mamet “Anne Frank” Movie

We here at Jewcy HQ were super-excited when Disney announced they had hired to David Mamet to write the script for a new movie based on The Diary of Anne Frank. After all, the story of a young Jewish girl … Read More

We here at Jewcy HQ were super-excited when Disney announced they had hired to David Mamet to write the script for a new movie based on The Diary of Anne Frank. After all, the story of a young Jewish girl who perished in the Holocaust seemed like a perfect subject for David "Fuck you, you fucking fuck" Mamet, right?

Well, sadly, our dreams have been crushed. Disney outright rejected Mamet’s script, claiming that the storyline was too "dark" and "intense." It’s not clear exactly what they were expecting (an revised ending with Anne and Peter getting married? A musical number?), but whatever Mamet produced wasn’t it. According to Flavorwire, the version he submitted was "the story of modern anti-Semitism [told] through a contemporary Jewish girl’s travels to Israel and the trauma is induced by a suicide bombing." Disney’s chief of production, Oren Aviv (Jewish, anyone?) had helped develop the project before it was ultimately rejected.

What does the future hold after the Frank-Mamet divorce? If Disney still wants to develop an Anne Frank related project, something tells us they’ll be trying to focus on the sunnier aspects of the story. Maybe the stuff about her burgeoning sexuality. Or the part where she gets her first period. Or some of the stuff where she talked about disliking her mom. If that doesn’t scream Anne Frank joining Jasmine and Belle in the canon of Disney princesses, then what does?